Wanda and Garrison

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

Impromptu drinks turn into talk of being middle management good guys before they decide to seek better drinks in more comfortable locations.



Despite the late hour the bar was still fairly packed and Wanda had stolen a quiet corner to enjoy her drink for the moment. She sat with her back snug to the wall, rolling a glass of scotch that someone had purchased for her in one hand and lost herself in the comforting roar of the establishment and the familiar setting.

No emergencies, no life or death situations. Those might be routine in her life now but sometimes all she needed was a drink and perhaps a companion.

Speaking of the devil...

"Sitting in the corner, getting drunk, feeling mellow. To make it fit right, I've brought you a bourbon and a beer." Kane put both of the drinks down on the table in front of her, completing the Thorogood reference and pulling up a chair for himself and his pint. "One has to respect tradition, eh?"

Wanda laughed, amused, as she watched him settle. "At the very least, you seem to have a healthy respect for my alcohol tolerance." She saluted him with her scotch before she took a drink, feeling all the aches and pains of general life just wash away with every minute. "It's nice to see you as always. And, of course, to reap the benefits of the free drinks."

"Well, between work and the team, I need a break. After all, a night off is an excuse to get out, drink too much, throw up on local law enforcement and wake up in a small holding cell with a large black transvestite named Charlene." Kane took a sip from his pint and paused, looking like he was considering something. "I might have put a little too much thought into that last statement to feel comfortable about it."

"You should only feel uncomfortable about it if you get yearly Christmas cards from Charlene," Wanda said, supporting her weight on her elbows as she leaned forward. The noise level had certainly not dropped by much, even with people leaving. "And good for you - taking a break, I mean, and not about throwing up on some hapless local officer. The last thing I think you want is another Sofia intervention - though the locale was very nice."

"Dad picked a nice end of the world to falsely retire to, I'll give him that." Garrison nodded in agreement. He hadn't been too far gone to enjoy the surroundings at least, during his time away. "So, what have you been up to lately? Some sort of superspy shopping spree at the local arms store, toppling a boring third world dictator of your choice?"

"Well, I have always had a thing for Kim John-il, you know," Wanda mused thoughtfully. "That short stature, those glasses. Maybe if I ask Emma very, very nicely she'll let me go traipsing through North Korea." Scotch gone, her fingers skipped from glass to glass before going for the bourbon. "Nothing so spectacular as all that, sadly or fortunately depending on how you view it. Survive tonight and wake up some time around 3 or 4 tomorrow afternoon. I plan on just being ... indulgent while I still have the free time." She said the word around the lip of her glass, clearly planning on enjoying herself no matter what tomorrow brought.

"Yeah, you know that you make that sound completely perverse, right? Like putting together supplies is required. Booze booze booze. Food food food. Lube lube lube. Gimp gimp gimp." His sardonic half smile punctuated the singsong cadence of the speech.

Snorted laughter caused Wanda to almost choke on her drink and it took her a few seconds to regain composure, waving a hand in Garrison's direction before she took a deep breath. "Oh god, my sinuses did not need to partake in my good drink," she admonished him, wiping her eyes. "And how many times have I told you not to read my calendar? I guess I'll have to reorder the gimp for another night."

"I didn't read your calendar. Your criminal record was more than enough." Kane took a look around, but it looked like they were the last survivors of their crowd at the bar. One good thing about New York was the late drinking hours.

Wanda smirked. "I never should have told you to look under 'Charlene'," she sighed. "I guess I learned my lesson." For a moment, she was distracted as her phone rang but she turned it off after a glance. "Those bloody scholars can wait until morning; my drinks take higher priority than a bunch of people who died well before my time."


"That's just how I've been considering approaching police work after today." Niether of them were serious, but it was good to vent, and they were comfortable with each other. "So what's next in the big plans for being an international woman of mystery."

"Would I be spoiling my fabulous image very much if I said paperwork?" Wanda shoved a large lock of hair out of her face and uncrossed her legs to get more comfortable on the bench. "You of all people will appreciate that at the end of the day, no matter who we put away, or chase or get chased by there's always the paperwork."


"There lies the curse of doing good. Being evil requires a lot less bookkeeping, I suppose. Can you image Magneto trying to figure out how to use Quicken? I can't."

Her eyes crinkled for a moment as she tried to imagine that and failed miserably. "Then what's the point of being good?" Wanda asked, again not being serious but enjoying the fact that she didn't have to be around Garrison. "It seems as if being bad were a lot more fun."


"Very true. Better pay, gorgeous henchwomen with loose morals, and no paperwork... actually, that kind of sounds like my dad's old job. Maybe the problem isn't that we're good, but that we're middle management good. We need some kind of high level job being good, and then the lines get blurred." Kane pointed out, leaning back in his seat, sipping his beer.

Wanda attempted to stretch out but the curse of long legs meant she kept smacking them into Garrison's chair. A moment later and he found himself with a lapful of legs. "Pardon those," she said dryly, "but I was knocking the feeling right out of my shins. And, hmm, I suspect you're right. But in order to rise above middle management good means that we have to do more paperwork without the gorgeous henchwomen - or men, thank you, though both have their appeal - and with at least some morals. It is a long climb up that ladder, my friend."


"So here we are trapped in our dead-end goodness." Kane rested his forearm against her legs comfortably, obviously relaxed around her. "There have to be some benefits."

She gave it some thought as she rolled the cool glass of her drink against her mouth for a moment. "We see interesting locals?" Wanda hazard, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "And we lord over those who have not reached our middle status yet, hah!"


"I'm missing people to lord things over. Maybe that's my problem." Garrison took a sip from his drink. "Would you think I was more attractive and powerful if I had lord-uh-lordlings? The Lorded? Whatever. You know what I mean."

"I think in the business we call them minions," she said, reaching over to pat his free hand with hers as she finished off her bourbon. "But they would only add to your current attractiveness, if that helps. So you are not hurting for being minion-less."

Wanda beamed. "This is why I have assistants!"


"You're lucky. I'd make them do my paperwork." Kane said into his pint glass.

"Oh, I do, trust me. But I have a lot more paperwork than I do assistants and so, there I am." Wanda eyed her beer with a strange sense of not wanting - she was suddenly not in the mood for beer and wanted to continue the trend of her first two drinks. But with the bar emptying out...

She nudged Garrison in the ribs with her foot and nodded towards the door. "Can a middle management good guy convince you to walk her home where I have better quality drinks there?"

Kane shrugged, draining the last of his pint. They were at the point it was another couple of hours before the early train into Salem Centre was running, and the prospect of a long cab ride verses additional drinks with an attractive friend didn't have much of a chance. "Sounds good. Sounds great, actually."

Suddenly, Wanda's night was looking very enjoyable. With the drinks already paid for, she slid her legs out from his lap and grabbed her purse. "Come on then," she said, as she stood before grabbing his hand and tugging him up from his seat. "Knowing us, we've just gotten started."